Overberg Online

Thursday, 15 March 2018

Farming in Caledon now Impossible Property Tax increased by 4800% and Water limited to 330 liters per day - all in one month!
The prepaid water meters has been removed and replaced with electronic
water meters. So you no longer have control of your water and instead of
getting their money first and then supply water the Theewaterskloof
Municipality has settled with giving you the water first and then send
you a monthly bill which makes absolutely no sense unless they have different agendas.

We have our own reservoir and do not get our water from Theewaterskloof dam.
I am a pig farmer in Tesselaarsdal and pigs need water. The Law and
Enforcement of Theewaterskloof served me to appear at the local Dorp's
Huis Water Department to explain why I use 45 000 liters of water per
month.
In December I have written them a letter explaining that I
am farming with 180 pigs and that both our dams are now empty due to
the drought, they promised me that they will give me an answer before
the end of January 2018. It's March now and no reply.
I have
reduced my piggery from 180 pigs to 90 pigs and my water from 45 kilo
liter to 15 kilo liter. We build another dam, so it's a total of three
dams on a 10 hectare piece of land.
Last Friday the Law and
Enforcement gave me another visit, serving me with a letter demanding me
to use 10 000 liter per month. That's 330 liters per day, to live from
and to give 90 pigs drinking water.
We are working with
Theewaterskloof Municipality and not against them (building extra dams
and getting tanks to catch rainwater). There is nothing else I can do
but to reduce my piggery once again or even shut it down. We catch rain
water and my neighbour let met me use water from his dam which is now
dangerously low, so that also has come to an end.
On top of that
they have raised my rates and taxes from R1000.00 per year to R48 000.00
per year. Keep in mind that there are zero services that they do on our
land, no refuse removal, no waste removal or anything else. They charge
me R110 per month for water availability - if I use it or not.
I
speak for all the residents of Tesselaarsdal when I say that we are in
serious trouble and most of the community work with farmers or farm
themselves, people are loosing their jobs and that can only lead to
chaos. I will be writing a letter to the Mayor and the D.A. explaining
our case and hopefully they will re-investigate and find solutions for
our small community.